A week later in Marrero, 23-year-old Christian Cardon of Gretna was reportedly showing off his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle to a group of friends. Cardon told Jefferson Parish Sheriff's deputies that he had left the magazine to the gun in his vehicle and that he pulled the trigger not knowing there was a live round in the chamber. His 16-year-old friend, Trey Stahl, was struck in the neck and killed.

The two adults are facing drastically different consequences. The mother who left her child in the house with a fun could spend the rest of her life in prison. Even if he is convicted, the man who pulled the trigger and killed his friend could avoid prison altogether.

Christian CardonJefferson Parish Sheriff's Office

New Orleans police originally released a statement claiming that 28-year-old Smith had been booked with second-degree murder in the death of 5-year-old Brandajah. Later the Police Department sent out another statement saying that, instead of murder, the mother was instead booked with cruelty to a juvenile. But booking information from the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office shows that Smith was booked with both crimes. If a person is engaging in behavior that's considered cruelty to a juvenile - such as leaving a 5-year-old at home alone - and the juvenile dies, the law allows that person to be booked with murder. Intent is irrelevant.

A second-degree murder convict in Louisiana is sent to prison for life.

There's no mandatory sentence for negligent homicide. That's what Cardon was booked with Sunday morning after 16-year-old Stahl fell dead. Five years in prison is the maximum sentence Cardon could get for that crime.

Besides serving as a reminder that folks with guns need to be more careful, the two stories reveal a failure our laws to properly address intent and circumstances. Both Smith and Cardon appear to be guilty of carelessness. Both of them seem primarily culpable in a child's death. But one could go to the prison forever and the other not at all.